VMware vsphere 6 x datacenter design cookbook

Table of ContentsPreface v Introduction 1Becoming a virtual datacenter architect 10Using a holistic approach to datacenter design 11Passing the VMware VCAP6-DCV Design exam 14Identifying

VMware vSphere 6.x Datacenter Design

VMware vSphere 6.x Datacenter Design

Cookbook

Second Edition

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First published: January 2014

Second published: June 2016

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About the Author

Hersey Cartwright has worked in the technology industry since 1996 in many roles, from help desk support to IT management He first started working with VMware technologies

in 2006 He is currently a solutions architect for SimpliVity, where he designs, sells, and supports VMware vSphere enterprise environments running on the SimpliVity Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) platform He has experience of working with a wide variety of server and storage platforms

In 2012, he began preparing to submit a design to defend for his VMware Certified Design Expert In February 2013, he successfully completed his defense and obtained VCDX His VCDX number is #128

Since January 2011, he has been an instructor with the VMware IT Academy at Tidewater Community college where he teaches vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 classes He designed and implemented the lab environment that is used by students in the virtualization and security programs offered at the Chesapeake Campus of Tidewater Community College He enjoys teaching and learns a lot from teaching others about the benefits of virtualization

He actively participates in the VMware community, and he has been awarded the vExpert title every year since 2012 He has presented multiple ProfessionalVMware.com vBrownBags on vSphere administration, vSphere design, and vSphere disaster recovery He regularly blogs about virtualization and other technologies at http://www.vhersey.com/

I want to thank my family, especially my wife Sandy, for putting up with

the long hours I work, listening to the noisy lab gear in the closet, and

supporting everything I do You guys are my everything, and your support

and encouragement means the world to me

I also want to thank the great VMware community There are a lot of great

folks there that are always willing to help out A special thanks to the

#vCoffee crew on Twitter: Shane, Susan, Matt, and Todd

About the Reviewer

Kim Bottu is a virtualization engineer in the EMEA region for an international Biglaw firm, where he focuses on virtual datacenter operations, optimization, and design In his current role, he takes care of the consolidated virtual datacenters in Asia and Europe, and he is the SME for the EMEA Litigation virtual datacenters

He holds the following certifications and honors: VCA-NV, VCP5-DCV, VCP6-DCV, and

VCAP5-DCD, and has been named vExpert 2016

Kim currently lives in Belgium and is a proud dad of his daughter named Zoey In his spare time you might find him playing with his daughter, reading books, or riding his mountain bike

He can be reached at www.vMusketeers.com

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Table of Contents

Preface v

Introduction 1Becoming a virtual datacenter architect 10Using a holistic approach to datacenter design 11Passing the VMware VCAP6-DCV Design exam 14Identifying what's new in vSphere 6 16Planning a vSphere 6 upgrade 18

Introduction 21Identifying the design factors 22Identifying stakeholders 24Conducting stakeholder interviews 25

Using Windows Performance Monitor 31Conducting a VMware Optimization Assessment 36Identifying dependencies 40

Introduction 43Identifying design requirements 45Identifying design constraints 48Making design assumptions 50Identifying design risks 52Creating the conceptual design 54

Introduction 58Identifying vCenter components and dependencies 59

Selecting a vCenter deployment option 61Determining vCenter resource requirements 62Selecting a database for the vCenter deployment 64Determining database interoperability 66Choosing a vCenter deployment topology 68Designing for management availability 69Designing a separate management cluster 71Configuring vCenter Mail, SNMP, and Alarms 72Using Enhanced Linked Mode 76Using the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix 77Backing up the vCenter Server components 79Upgrading vCenter Server 80Designing a vSphere Update Manager Deployment 82

Introduction 88

Calculating the storage capacity requirements 91Determining the storage performance requirements 93Calculating the storage throughput 95Storage connectivity options 96Storage path selection plugins 99

Designing for VMware VSAN 105Using VMware Virtual Volumes 108Incorporating storage policies into a design 112NFS version 4.1 capabilities and limits 114

Introduction 117Determining network bandwidth requirements 118Standard or distributed virtual switches 121Providing network availability 124Network resource management 127

IP storage network design considerations 134

Creating custom TCP/IP stacks 138Designing for VMkernel services 141vMotion network design considerations 142IPv6 in a vSphere Design 144

Chapter 7: vSphere Compute Design 147

Introduction 148Calculating CPU resource requirements 148Calculating memory resource requirements 150Transparent Page Sharing 152Scaling up or scaling out 155Determining the vCPU-to-core ratio 157Clustering compute resources 158Reserving HA resources to support failover 160Using Distributed Resource Scheduling to balance cluster resources 162Ensuring cluster vMotion compatibility 164

Providing fault tolerance protection 168

Introduction 175Using the VMware Hardware Compatibility List 176Understanding the physical storage design 181Understanding the physical network design 182Creating the physical compute design 184Creating a custom ESXi image 187Best practices for ESXi host BIOS settings 192

Introduction 197Right-sizing virtual machines 198Enabling CPU Hot Add and Memory Hot Plug 200Using paravirtualized VM hardware 203Creating virtual machine templates 206Upgrading and installing VMware Tools 209Upgrading VM virtual hardware 211Using vApps to organize virtualized applications 214Using VM affinity and anti-affinity rules 217Using a VM to host affinity and anti-affinity rules 220Converting physical servers with vCenter Converter Standalone 223

Introduction 233Managing the Single Sign-On Password Policy 234Managing Single Sign-On Identity Sources 236

Using Active Directory for ESXi host authentication 238ESXi Firewall configuration 240

Configuring role-based access control 244Virtual network security 248Using the VMware vSphere 6.0 Hardening Guide 249

Introduction 251Backing up ESXi host configurations 252Configuring ESXi host logging 254Backing up virtual distributed switch configurations 257Deploying VMware Data Protection 260Using VMware Data Protection to back up virtual machines 266Replicating virtual machines with vSphere Replication 272Protecting the virtual datacenter with Site Recovery Manager 277

Introduction 281Creating the architecture design document 282Writing an implementation plan 285Developing an installation guide 289Creating a validation test plan 292Writing operational procedures 295

Implementing the design 298

Index 301

VMware is the industry leader for datacenter virtualization This second edition of the

Datacenter Design Cookbook covers VMware's vSphere 6.x suite of products, which provide

a robust and resilient platform to virtualize server and application workloads The features available in vSphere 6.x simplify management, increase availability, provide security, and guarantee the performance of workloads deployed in the virtualized datacenter

The VMware vSphere 6.x Datacenter Design Cookbook Second Edition provides recipes to

create a virtual datacenter design using the features of vSphere 6.x It does this by guiding you through the process of identifying the design factors and applying them to the logical and physical design process

This book steps through the design process from beginning to end, from the discovery

process, to creating the conceptual design, to calculating the resource requirements of the logical storage, compute, and network design, to mapping the logical requirements

to a physical design, and finally creating the design documentation

This book's recipes provide guidance for making design decisions to ensure the successful creation, and ultimately the successful implementation, of a VMware vSphere 6.x virtual datacenter design

What this book covers

Chapter 1, The Virtual Datacenter, provides an introduction to the benefits of the virtual

datacenter, VMware vSphere products, and basic virtualization concepts This chapter identifies the differences between a datacenter administrator and a datacenter architect An overview of the VMware Certified Advanced Professional Datacenter Design (VCAP-DCD) certification is also covered

Chapter 2, The Discovery Process, explains how to identify stakeholders, conduct stakeholder

interviews, and perform technical assessments in order to discover the business and

technical goals of a virtualization project This chapter covers how to use tools, VMware Capacity Planner, Windows Performance Monitor, and vRealize Operations Manager to collect resource information during the discovery process

Chapter 3, The Design Factors, explains how to identify and document the design

requirements, constraints, assumptions, and risks This chapter details how to use

the design factors to create the conceptual design

Chapter 4, vSphere Management Design, describes the vCenter Server components and their

dependencies This chapter contains recipes to determine the vCenter Server deployment option, the Windows server or virtual appliance that you need to use, and determine the type

of database that you need to use, based on the deployment size

Chapter 5, vSphere Storage Design, covers logical storage design Recipes are included

to calculate the storage capacity and performance requirements for the logical storage design This chapter covers the details of selecting the correct RAID level and storage connectivity

to support a design Recipes for VSAN and VVOLs are provided in this chapter

Chapter 6, vSphere Network Design, provides details on logical network design This chapter

explains how to calculate bandwidth requirements to support a vSphere design Details

on selecting a virtual switch topology, designing for network availability, and the network requirements to support vMotion and IP connected storage are also covered

Chapter 7, vSphere Compute Design, provides recipes to calculate the CPU and memory

requirements to create the logical compute design This chapter also covers cluster design considerations for High Availability (HA) and the Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

Chapter 8, vSphere Physical Design, explains how to satisfy the design factors by mapping

the logical management, storage, network, and compute designs to hardware to create the physical vSphere design The chapter also provides details of creating a custom installation ISO to install ESXi and the best practices for host BIOS configurations

Chapter 9, Virtual Machine Design, looks at the design of virtual machines and application

workloads running in the virtual datacenter Recipes are provided to right-size virtual machine resources, enable the ability to add virtual machine resources, and create virtual machine templates This chapter details the use of affinity and anti-affinity rules to improve application efficiency and availability Converting or migrating physical servers to virtual machines is also covered in this chapter

Chapter 10, vSphere Security Design, provides an overview of vSphere features available to

provide security in the virtual datacenter Recipes covering authentication, access controls, and security hardening that must be incorporated into the datacenter design to secure the vSphere environment

Chapter 11, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, covers options for backup, recovery,

and continued operations in the event of system failure This chapter covers how to create backups of vSphere configurations so that they can be quickly restored The protection

of virtual machines using VMware products for backup and replication is also covered in this chapter

Chapter 12, Design Documentation, covers documenting a vSphere design Documentation

includes the Architecture Design Document, the Implementation Plan, the Installation Guide, the Validation and Test Plan, and the Operational Procedures This chapter also provides tips

to present the design to stakeholders and using the design documentation to implement the design

What you need for this book

The following are the software requirements for this book:

f VMware vSphere ESXi 6.x

f VMware vCenter Server 6.x

f VMware PowerCLI 6.x

f VMware vCLI 6.x

Who this book is for

If you are an administrator or consultant interested in designing virtualized datacenter environments using VMware vSphere 5.x and the supporting components, then this book is for you This book will help both new and experienced architects deliver professional VMware vSphere virtual datacenter designs

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The Virtual Datacenter

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

f Becoming a virtual datacenter architect

f Using a holistic approach to datacenter design

f Passing the VMware VCAP-DCV Design exam

f Identifying what's new in vSphere 6

f Planning a vSphere 6 upgrade

Introduction

This chapter focuses on many of the basic concepts and benefits of virtualization It provides

a quick overview of VMware virtualization, introduces the virtual datacenter architect, and lays some of the groundwork necessary to create and implement a successful virtual datacenter design using VMware vSphere 6.x

We will also explore the VMware Certified Advanced Professional-Datacenter Virtualization (VCAP6-DCV) design exam and the new VMware Certified Implementation Expert-

Datacenter Virtualization (VCIX6-DCV) certification, including a few tips that should help you prepare to successfully complete the exam and certification

Then, we will look at some of the new features of vSphere 6 This section will include where to find the current release notes and the latest vSphere product documentation

Finally, we will take a high-level look at the process of planning an upgrade to an existing vSphere deployment to vSphere 6

If you are already familiar with virtualization, this chapter will provide a review of many of the benefits and technologies of virtualization

1

Since the focus of this book is on design, we will not go into great detail discussing the

specifics of how to configure resources in a virtual datacenter Most of you probably already have a good understanding of VMware's virtualization architecture So, this section will provide just a basic overview of the key VMware components that are the building blocks to the virtual datacenter

Virtualization creates a layer of abstraction between the physical hardware and the virtual machines that run on it Virtual hardware is presented to the virtual machine, granting

access to the underlying physical hardware, which is scheduled by the hypervisor's kernel The hypervisor separates the physical hardware from the virtual machine, as shown in the following diagram:

The hypervisor separates the physical hardware from the virtual machine

The new release of vSphere 6 does not change the design process or the design

methodologies The new functions and features of the release provide an architect with more tools to satisfy design requirements

ESXi allows multiple virtual machines with a variety of operating systems to run

simultaneously, sharing the resources of the underlying physical hardware Access to physical resources, such as memory, CPU, storage, and network, used by the virtual machines is managed by the scheduler or the Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) provided by ESXi The resources presented to the virtual machines can be overcommitted This means more

resources than are available can be allocated to the virtual machines on the physical

hardware Advanced memory sharing and reclamation techniques, such as Transparent Page Sharing (TPS) and ballooning, along with CPU scheduling, allow for overcommitment of these resources, resulting in greater virtual to physical consolidation ratios

ESXi 6 is a 64-bit hypervisor that must be run on a 64-bit hardware An ESXi 6 installation requires at least 1 GB of disk space for installation It can be installed on a hard disk locally,

on a USB device, on a Logical Unit Number (LUN), on a Storage Area Network (SAN), or can

be deployed stateless on hosts with no storage using Auto Deploy The small footprint of an ESXi installation provides a reduction in the management overhead associated with patching and security hardening

With the release of vSphere 5.0, VMware retired the ESX hypervisor ESX had a separate Linux-based service console for the management interface of the hypervisor Management functions were provided by agents running in the service console The service console has since been removed from ESXi, and agents now run directly on ESXi's VMkernel

To manage a standalone host running ESXi, a Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) is provided for basic configuration and troubleshooting A shell is available that can either be accessed locally from the console or remotely using Secure Shell (SSH) esxcli and other commands can be used in the shell to provide advanced configuration options

An ESXi host can also be accessed directly using the vSphere client The ESXi DCUI is shown

in the following screenshot:

ESXi's DCUI

The DCUI can be accessed remotely using SSH by typing the dcui

command in the prompt Press Ctrl + C to exit the remote DCUI session.

Virtual machines

A virtual machine is a software computer that runs a guest operating system Virtual

machines comprise a set of configuration files and data files stored on local or remote

storage These configuration files contain information about the virtual hardware presented to the virtual machine This virtual hardware includes the CPU, RAM, disk controllers, removable devices, and so on It emulates the same functionality as the physical hardware The following screenshot depicts the virtual machine files that are stored on a shared Network File System (NFS) data store:

Virtual machine files stored on a shared NFS data store displayed using the vSphere web client

The files that make up a virtual machine are typically stored in a directory set aside for the particular virtual machine they represent These files include the configuration file, virtual disk files, NVRAM file, and virtual machine log files

The following table lists the common virtual machine file extensions along with a description

of each:

File extension Description

.vmx This is a virtual machine configuration file It contains the configurations of

the virtual hardware that is presented to the virtual machine

.vmdk This is a virtual disk descriptor file It contains a header and other

information pertaining to the virtual disk

-flat.vmdk This is a preallocated virtual disk It contains the content or data on the

disk used by the virtual machine

.nvram This is a file that stores the state of a virtual machine's Basic Input Output

System (BIOS) or Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) configurations vswp This is a virtual machine swap file It gets created when a virtual machine

is powered on The size of this file is equal to the amount of memory allocated minus any memory reservations

.log This is a virtual machine logfile

.vmsd This is a virtual machine file used with snapshots to store data about each

snapshot active on a virtual machine

.vmsn This is a virtual machine snapshot data file

Virtual machines can be deployed using a variety of methods as follows:

f Using the New Virtual Machine wizard in the vSphere client or vSphere web client

f By getting converted from a physical machine using the VMware converter

f By getting imported from an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) or Open Virtualization Archive (OVA)

f By getting cloned from an existing virtual machine

f By getting deployed from a virtual machine template

When a new virtual machine is created, a guest operating system can be installed on the virtual machine VMware vSphere 6 supports more than 80 different guest operating systems These include many versions of the Windows server and desktop operating systems, many distributions and versions of Linux and Unix operating systems, and Apple Mac OS operating systems

Virtual appliances are preconfigured virtual machines that can be imported to the virtual environment A virtual appliance can comprise a single virtual machine or a group of virtual machines with all the components required to support an application The virtual machines in

a virtual appliance are preloaded with guest operating systems, and the applications they run are normally preconfigured and optimized to run in a virtual environment

Since virtual machines are just a collection of files on a disk, they become portable Virtual machines can be easily moved from one location to another by simply moving or copying the associated files Using VMware vSphere features such as vMotion, Enhanced vMotion, or Storage vMotion, virtual machines can be migrated from host to host or data store to data store while they are running Virtual machines can also be exported to an OVF or OVA to be imported into another VMware vSphere environment.

Virtual infrastructure management

VMware vCenter Server provides a centralized management interface to manage and

configure groups of ESXi hosts in the virtualized datacenter The vCenter Server is required to configure and control many advanced features, such as the Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), Storage DRS, and VMware High Availability (HA) The vCenter Server is accessed using either the Windows vSphere client or the vSphere web client Many vendors provide plugins that can be installed to allow third-party storage, network, and compute resources to

be managed using the vSphere client or vSphere web client

The C#, or Windows vSphere client, is still available in vSphere 6 Since the release of vSphere 5.5, access to, and the configuration of, new features is only available using the vSphere web client The vSphere web client can be accessed at https://FQDN_or_IP_of_vCenter_Server:9443/

The vCenter Server can be installed on a 64-bit Windows server It can be run on dedicated physical hardware or as a virtual machine When the vCenter Server is deployed on the Windows server, it requires either the embedded vPostgres database, a Microsoft SQL database, or an Oracle database to store configuration and performance information IBM DB2 databases are supported with vSphere 5.1, but this support was removed in vSphere 5.5

With the release of vCenter 6, the Microsoft SQL Express database is no longer used as the embedded database vPostgres is now used as the embedded database for small

deployments The vPostgres database on a Windows server can be used to support

environments of fewer than 20 hosts and 200 virtual machines When upgrading to vCenter

6, if the previous version was using the Microsoft SQL Express database, the database will be converted to the embedded vPostgres database as part of the upgrade

Another option to deploy the vCenter Server is the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) The VCSA is a preconfigured, Linux-based virtual machine, preinstalled with the vCenter Server components The appliance includes an embedded vPostgres database that supports up to 1,000 hosts and 10,000 virtual machines The embedded vPostgres database is suitable for almost all deployments, using an external Oracle database is also supported

Several other management and automation tools are available to aid the day-to-day

administration of a vSphere environment One of them is the vSphere Command-Line Interface (vCLI) Another one is the vSphere PowerCLI, which provides a Windows PowerShell interface The vRealize Orchestrator can be used to automate tasks, and the vSphere

Management Assistant (vMA) is a Linux-based virtual appliance that is used to run

management and automation scripts against hosts These tools allow an administrator to use command-line utilities to manage hosts from remote workstations

VMware provides a suite of other products that benefits the virtualized datacenter These datacenter products, such as VMware vRealize Operations (vROps), VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM), and VMware vRealize Automation (vRA), can each be leveraged in the virtual datacenter to meet specific requirements related to management, disaster recovery, and cloud services At the core of these products is vSphere suite, which includes ESXi, the vCenter Server, and the core supporting components

Understanding the benefits of virtualization

The following table provides a matrix of some of the core VMware technologies and the benefits that can be realized using them This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all VMware technologies and features, but it provides an insight into many of the technologies commonly deployed in the enterprise virtual datacenter:

VMware technology Primary benefits Description

vSphere ESXi Server consolidation

Resource efficiency

ESXi is VMware's bare-metal hypervisor that hosts virtual machines, also known as guests, and schedules virtual hardware access to physical resources.vSphere HA Increased availability HA restarts virtual machines in

the event of a host failure It also monitors and restarts the virtual machines in the event of a guest operating system failure

vMotion and vSphere

DRS Resource efficiencyIncreased availability vMotion allows virtual machines to be live-migrated between

hosts in a virtual datacenter DRS determines the initial placement

of the virtual machine on the host resources within a cluster and makes recommendations, or automatically migrates the virtual machines to balance resources across all hosts in a cluster

VMware technology Primary benefits Description

Resource pools Resource efficiency These are used to guarantee,

reserve, or limit the virtual machine's CPU, memory, and disk resources

VMware Fault

Tolerance (FT) Increased availability FT provides 100 percent uptime for a virtual machine in the

event of a host hardware failure

It creates a secondary virtual machine that mirrors all the operations of the primary In the event of a hardware failure, the secondary virtual machine becomes the primary and a new secondary is created

Thin provisioning Resource efficiency This allows for storage to be

overprovisioned by presenting the configured space to a virtual machine but only consuming the space on the disk that the guest actually requires

Hot add CPU and

memory Resource efficiencyScalability This allows for the addition of CPU and memory resources to a virtual

machine while the virtual machine

is running

Storage vMotion Resource efficiency This moves virtual machine

configuration files and disks between storage locations that have been presented to a host.vSphere Data

Protection (VDP) Disaster recovery This provides agentless image-level backup and recovery of

virtual machines

vSphere Replication Disaster recovery This features provides the ability

to replicate virtual machines between sites

vCenter Server Simplified management This provides a single

management interface to configure and monitor the resources available to virtual datacenters

VMware technology Primary benefits Description

vCenter Server Linked

Mode Simplified management This links multiple vCenter Servers together to allow them to be

managed from a single client.Host Profiles Simplified management This maintains consistent

configuration and configuration compliance across all the hosts in the environment

There are many others, and each technology or feature may also have its own set of

requirements that must be met in order to be implemented The purpose here is to show how features or technologies can be mapped to benefits, which can then be mapped to requirements and ultimately mapped into a design This is helpful in ensuring that the

benefits and technologies provided by virtualization satisfy the design requirements

Identifying when not to virtualize

Not all applications or server workloads are good candidates for virtualization It is important that these workloads are identified early on in the design process

There are a number of reasons a server or application may not be suitable for virtualization Some of these include the following:

f Vendor support

f Licensing issues

f Specialized hardware dependencies

f High resource demand

f Lack of knowledge or skill set

A common reason to not virtualize an application or workload is the reluctance of a vendor to support their application in a virtual environment As virtualization has become more common

in the enterprise datacenter, this has become uncommon However, there are still application vendors that will not support their products once virtualized

Software and operating systems licensing in a virtual environment can also be a challenge, especially when it comes to conversions from physical server to virtual machine Many

physical servers are purchased with Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) licenses, and these licenses, in most cases, cannot be transferred to a virtual environment Also, many licenses are tied to hardware-specific information, such as interface MAC addresses or drive signatures Licensing issues can usually be overcome Many times, the primary risk becomes the cost of upgrading or acquiring new licensing As with other potential design risks, it is important that any issues and the potential impact of licensing on the design be identified early on in the design process

Some applications may require the use of specialized hardware Fax boards, serial ports, and security dongles are common examples There are ways to provide solutions for many of these However, often, with the risks associated with the ability to support the application or with the loss of one or more of the potential benefits of virtualizing the application, the better solution may be to leave the application on dedicated physical hardware Again, it is important that these types of applications be identified very early on in the design process.

Physical servers configured with a large amount of CPU and memory resources where

applications are consuming a large amount of these resources may not be good candidates for virtualization This also holds true for applications with high network utilization and large storage I/O requirements vSphere 6.0 supports virtual machines configured with up to

128 Virtual CPUs (vCPUs) and 4 TB of memory, but the high utilization of these configured resources can have a negative impact on other workloads in the virtual environment These high-utilization workloads will also require more resources to be reserved for failover The benefits of virtualizing resource-intensive applications must be weighed against the impact placed on the environment In some cases, it may be better to leave these applications on dedicated physical hardware

Many administrators may lack knowledge of the benefits or skills to manage a virtualized datacenter The administrator of a virtual environment must be well-versed with storage, networking, and virtualization in order to successfully configure, maintain, and monitor a virtual environment Though this may not necessarily be a reason not to leverage the benefits

of a virtualized environment, it can be a substantial risk to the acceptance of a design and its implementation This is especially true with smaller IT departments where the roles of the server, application, storage, and network administrators are combined

Each of these can introduce risks in the design We will discuss how risk impacts the design

process in much more detail in Chapter 2, The Discovery Process, and Chapter 3, The Design

Factors.

Becoming a virtual datacenter architect

The virtual datacenter architect, or simply the architect, is someone who identifies

requirements, designs a virtualization solution to meet those requirements, and then

oversees the implementation of the solution Sounds easy enough, right?

How to do it…

The primary role of the architect is to provide solutions that meet customer requirements At times, this can be difficult since the architect may not always be part of the complete sales process Many times, customers may purchase hardware from other vendors and look to us to help them "make it all work" In such situations, the purchased hardware becomes a constraint

on the design Identifying and dealing with constraints and other design factors will be discussed

in more detail in Chapter 2, The DiscoveryProcess, and Chapter 3, The Design Factors.

The architect must also be able to identify requirements, both business and technical,

by conducting stakeholder interviews and analyzing current configurations Once the

requirements have been identified, the architect must then map the requirements into

a solution by creating a design This design is then presented to the stakeholders and if approved, it is implemented During the implementation phase, the architect ensures that configurations are done to meet the design requirements, and the work done stays within the scope of the design

The architect must also understand best practice Not just best practice to configure the hypervisor, but for management, storage, security, and networking Understanding best practice is the key The architect not only knows best practice but understands why it is considered best practice It is also important to understand when to deviate from what is considered best practice

There's more…

The large part of an architect's work is "customer-facing" This includes conducting interviews with stakeholders to identify requirements and ultimately presenting the design to decision makers Besides creating a solid solution to match the customer's requirements, it is important that the architect gains and maintains the trust of the project stakeholders A professional appearance and, more importantly, a professional attitude are both helpful in building this relationship

Using a holistic approach to datacenter

design

The virtual datacenter architect must be able to take a holistic approach to datacenter

design This means that, for every decision made, the architect must understand how the environment, as a whole, will be impacted

An architect is required to be, at the very least, familiar with all aspects of the datacenter They must understand how the different components of a datacenter, such as storage, networking, computing, security, and management, are interconnected, as shown in the following diagram:

The holistic approach to datacenter design

It has become very important to understand how any decision or change will impact the rest

of the design Identifying dependencies becomes an important part of the design process If

a change is made to the network, how are computing, management, and storage resources affected? What other dependencies will this introduce in the design? Failing to take a holistic approach to design can result in unnecessary complications during the design process and potentially costly fixes after the design is implemented

How to do it

You have been engaged to design a virtualization solution for a financial organization The solution you are proposing is using 10 GB Converged Network Adapters (CNA) to provide connectivity to the organization's network in three 1U rackmount servers The organization needs to separate a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) that is currently configured to be delivered over the CNA onto a physically separate network to satisfy a new compliance requirement A 1 GB network will provide sufficient bandwidth for this network, and the network should be highly available Single points of failure should be minimized

To support this compliance requirement, you, the architect, must take a holistic approach to the design by answering a number of questions about each design decision Some questions are as follows:

f Are there available network ports in the current rackmount servers, or will a network card need to be added? If a card must be added, are there available Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slots?

f Will a dual port network card provide sufficient redundancy, or will the network need

to be separated across physical cards? Are there onboard network ports available that can be used with a PCI network card to provide in-box redundancy?

f Has the physically separate switch's hardware been obtained? If not, how long before the equipment is received and deployed? Will this have an impact on the implementation schedule?

f How will the virtual switch need to be configured to provide the connectivity and redundancy required?

How it works

The impact can be fairly significant, depending on some of the answers For example, let's say that the 1U rackmount server will not support the required network adapters needed to satisfy the requirement, and a different 2U rackmount server must be used This then raises more questions, such as: "Is there sufficient space in the rackmount to support the new server footprint?"

What if the requirement had been that the applications connected to this network be

virtualized on separate physical server hardware and storage? What parts of the design would have to change? The architect must be able to understand the dependencies of each part of the design and how a change in one place may affect other areas of the design

As you think through these questions, you should be able to see how a change to a

requirement can have a deep impact on many other areas of the design It becomes very important to identify requirements early on in the design process

Passing the VMware VCAP6-DCV Design

exam

For vSphere 5 and vSphere 6, VMware released advanced exams, testing the ability of a person

to deploy, administer, and design complex virtual environments The exams for vSphere 6 are the VMware Certified Advanced Professional 6-Datacenter Virtualization Deployment (VCAP6-DCV Deployment) exam, which focuses on deploying and administering a VMware vSphere environment, and the VMware Certified Advanced Professional 6-Datacenter Virtualization Design (VCAP6-DCV Design) exam, which focuses on designing an enterprise VMware vSphere environment VMware has introduced a new certification, VMware Certified Implementation Expert-Datacenter Virtualization (VCIX6-DCV), which is obtained by passing both the VCAP6-DCV Deployment and VCAP6-DCV Design

The current VMware Certification path is mapped out in the following flowchart:

VMware Certified Professional VCP6-DCV

VMware Certified Implementation Expert

VCIX6-DCV

VMware Certified Advanced Professional - Administration VCAP6-DCA

VMware Certified Advanced Professional - Design VCAP6-DCD

VMware Certified Design Expert VCDX6-DCV

VMware Certified Associate VCA6-DCV

VMware certification path for datacenter administrators and architects

The VCAP6-DCV Design exam tests your ability to design enterprise virtualized environments

To be successful, you must have an in-depth understanding of VMware's core components and the relationship they share with other components of the datacenter, such as storage, networking, and application services, along with a mastery of VMware's datacenter design methodologies and principles All the exam objectives, including study resources, can be found in the exam blueprint VMware exam roadmaps and the VCAP exam blueprints can

be found on the VMware Certification portal page at https://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/

The final stop on the VMware certification path is the VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) The VCDX certification requires you to create a VMware vSphere design, submitting the design to VMware for review, and then defending the design before a panel of VMware Design Experts.

Getting ready

Before you are eligible to take the VCAP6-DCV Design exam, you should have obtained the VMware Certified Professional 6–Data Center Virtualization (VCP6-DCV) certification Besides the training required for the VCP6-DCV certification, there is no other required training that must

be completed in order to sit for the VCAP6-DCV Design exam When you are ready to schedule your VCAP6-DCV Design exam, you must submit an exam authorization request to VMware When you submit the exam authorization request, VMware will verify that you have met the certification prerequisites and provide you with the access necessary to schedule the exam

At the time of writing this book, the VCAP6-DCV Design exam is in beta, and the final version has not yet been released The VCAP6-DCV Design beta exam consists of 31 questions with a time limit of 240 minutes The scoring of the exam has yet to be determined The beta exam questions are comprised of a mixture of multiple-choice, drag-and-drop, and design scenarios The final release of the VCAP6-DCV Design exam will likely be very similar For details,

refer to the VMware Certification portal at https://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/

How to do it…

The VCAP-DCD exam for vSphere 5 was one of the most challenging exams I have ever taken Here are a few tips to help you prepare for and successfully sit the VCAP-DCD or VCAP6-DCV Design exam:

f Study the material on the exam blueprint: The exam blueprint lists all the objectives

of the exam, along with links to documentation related to each exam objective

f Review the vSphere 6 release notes and product documentation: The release notes and product documentation will provide an overview of the features available, the requirements that must be met to support implementation of the new features, and the best practices to implement features to support design requirements

f Schedule your exam: Scheduling your exam sets a goal date for you to work towards Setting the date can provide motivation to help you stay on track with your studying efforts

f Watch the APAC vBrownBag DCD5 series: The APAC vBrownBag did a series

of podcasts focusing on the VCAP-DCD exam for vSphere 5 exam objectives

Even though these podcasts focus on version 5 of the exam, many of the design methodologies and concepts are similar These podcast are still relevant and

provide a valuable study resource The podcast can be found at http://www.professionalvmware.com/brownbags

f Get familiar with the exam design interface: On VMware's VCAP Certification page for the DCD exam, there is a UI Demo that will help you get familiar with the design interface that is used in the exam.

f Practice time management: It is very important that you are aware of the amount of time you are taking on a question and how much time remains If you get hung up on

a multiple-choice question, take your best guess and move on Conserve time for the more complex drag-and-drop and design scenario questions

f Answer every question: A question left unanswered will be marked incorrect and will not benefit your score in any way A guess has some chance of being correct

f Study the material on the exam blueprint: I know this has already been mentioned once, but it is worth mentioning again The exam blueprint contains all the testable objectives Study it!

There's more…

For up-to-date information on the VCAP6-DCV Design certification, to download the exam blueprint, and to book the exam once it has been released, visit the VMware Certification portal page at https://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/

Identifying what's new in vSphere 6

vSphere 6 is the latest release of VMware's virtual datacenter platform This release includes features that provide increased scalability, enhanced security, increased availability, and simplified management of the virtual datacenter infrastructure A few of the new features and enhancements include:

f New vCenter Architecture to simplify deployment and management of authentication and SSL certificates

f Cluster scalability increased to 64 hosts and 8,000 VMs

f Fault Tolerance (FT) enhancements to support virtual machines with up to four vCPUs

f Virtual Volumes (VVOL) providing object-based policy managed virtual machine aware storage

f NFS v4.1 support for NFS authentication and multipath support

f vMotion enhanced to support migrations across vCenter Servers and over distances

These are just a few of the new features and enhancements introduced with the release of vSphere 6 A new version of vSphere with the new features and enhancements does not directly change the design process or methodology The enhancements and features provide

an architect with more tools and options to meet requirements, but can also introduce complexity into the design

How to do it…

It is important for the architect to understand all the new features and enhancements

available This is a simple but important process, which includes:

f Accessing the vSphere 6.0 release notes at https://www.vmware.com/

notes.html

support/vsphere6/doc/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-60-release-f Accessing the vSphere 6 documentation sets found at https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-6-pubs.html

How it works

Reading the vSphere 6 release notes gives the architect a summary of the additional

features, bug fixes, and known issues There is also information on the upgrade process and workarounds for known issues

Reviewing the vSphere documentation, including the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide,

vSphere Upgrade Guide, and vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide, gives the

architect a deeper understanding of new features and how to implement new functionality The documentation also provides specific requirements that must be satisfied in order to enable a new feature or function These documentation sets are available online or can be downloaded in the pdf, epub, or mobi formats

There's more…

In the VMware Communities, https://communities.vmware.com/, there are forums

available to discuss topics such as vSphere Upgrade & Install at https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vsphere/upgradecenter and ESXi 6 located at https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vsphere/esxi6, along with other Communities dedicated to each vSphere product In these forums, an architect or administrator can find real-world issues encountered by other vSphere administrators and architects Questions and discussions can be posted related to features and issues related to all vSphere products If you run into issues or have questions about a specific feature, there are people in the community who are always happy to help

Planning a vSphere 6 upgrade

Upgrading an existing vSphere environment to vSphere 6 is a fairly simple process and can be completed with minimal impact to production with the proper planning

In this recipe, we will look at the steps required to properly plan an upgrade to vSphere 6 We will not cover the specifics of upgrading vCenter Server, ESXi hosts, or any other component

of the virtual datacenter Specific recipes for upgrading vCenter Server and ESXi hosts have

been included in Chapter 4, vSphere Management Design, and recipes for upgrading virtual machine to the latest hardware are included in Chapter 9, Virtual Machine Design.

How to do it…

The following tasks should be completed when planning a vSphere 6 upgrade:

f Verify that the existing hardware is on the VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)

at https://www.vmware.com/go/hcl

f Check for interoperability between VMware products using the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix at http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/sim/interop_matrix.php

f Determine interoperability and support between VMware vSphere 6 and third-party hardware and software products

f Determine the proper upgrade path and sequence

Completing these steps to properly plan a vSphere 6 upgrade will ensure that the upgrade can

be completed successfully

How it works…

With each release of vSphere, VMware adds support for new hardware and firmware for devices such as disk controllers, server platforms, network interface cards (NIC), and so on VMware also removes support for older hardware and firmware It is important to verify that the hardware

is on the supported compatibility list prior to attempting an upgrade Using the VMware

Hardware Compatibility List is covered in more detail in Chapter 8, vSphere Physical Design

Failure to validate support for hardware on HCL can cause significant issues after the upgrade Unsupported hardware may not be available for use or may cause instability in the environment Replacing unsupported hardware or upgrading firmware on current hardware to a supported configuration may be required as part of the upgrade process

Checking for interoperability between vSphere products will help ensure that there is minimal impact on functionality during and after the upgrade process Just like the hardware and firmware, the interoperability between vSphere products changes with each version New support is added for newer products and features, while support may be removed for older, products and features Details on using the VMware Product Interoperability can be found in

Chapter 4, vSphere Management Design.

The virtual datacenter may contain many third-party products that integrate with the vSphere environment These products often include backup and recovery software, replication

software, and management and monitoring applications Before upgrading to vSphere 6, check with each third-party product vendor to validate support for vSphere 6 or to determine the requirements for vSphere 6 support This is the step I see missed most often, typically due

to not fully understanding dependencies with these products It is critical to understand what products require integration with the vSphere environment and the impact that changes to the environment may have on these products Again, this is where proper planning from the beginning ensures a successful vSphere 6 upgrade

The final step is to determine the proper upgrade path If validation of support and

interoperability has been completed correctly, this step will likely be the easiest in the process Once the hardware is validated and, VMware product and third-party product interoperability has been validated, a plan can be formulated for upgrading

Details are important when it comes to the support of hardware and software in the virtual datacenter Spending time to properly plan will ensure a successful upgrade to vSphere 6

The Discovery Process

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

f Identifying the design factors

f Identifying stakeholders

f Conducting stakeholder interviews

f VMware Capacity Planner

f Using Windows Performance Monitor

f Conducting a VMware Optimization Assessment

2

Discovery is the most important phase of the design process It is also the most

time-consuming The discovery process includes a meeting with the stakeholders to determine business requirements that the design must meet It also includes current state assessments

to determine the technical requirements that the design must satisfy in order to meet the customer requirements, which in turn become the design requirements

During the discovery process, an architect must interact with many different individuals in

an organization to collect the necessary information that is needed to begin creating the conceptual design Decision makers, strategic planners, facilities and maintenance providers, network administrators, storage administrators, application administrators, and application end users can, in some way, be impacted by or gain some benefit from a virtual datacenter design (some directly and others indirectly) Anyone who may be affected by the design should

be identified to be included in the discovery process as early as possible

The current state assessment is the process of collecting information about the physical resources currently supporting the environment, such as CPU, memory, and storage

Irrespective of whether the environment consists of physical servers, virtual servers, or a mix

of virtual and physical servers, the current state assessment will identify the total resources available and the total resources actually in use

There are a number of different tools available to perform a current state assessment of an environment The tool used often depends on the size of the environment VMware offers a Capacity Planner tool that provides a good way to automate this assessment For a smaller environment of Windows servers, the Windows Performance Monitor (PerfMon) utility can be used to collect the current state information For Linux systems, tools such as top, Kinfocenter, and Zabbix can be used to collect and analyze performance data For environments that are already virtualized on vSphere, the vSphere Optimization Assessment (VOA) provides useful information on the current state of the environment

Once the design factors have been identified and accepted, the design process continues with the logical and physical designs The logical design maps the requirements to the resources required to satisfy the requirements The physical design then maps the logical design onto the physical hardware that will provide these resources

Identifying the design factors

The design factors are the primary considerations that influence the design These factors define the function that the design must accomplish, how it should accomplish it, and what may prevent the design from accomplishing it

How to do it…

The design factors encompass much more than just the physical resources, such as the CPU, memory, and storage, necessary to run workloads in a virtual environment

You need the following requirements to identify the design factors:

f Functional and non-functional requirements

traceable, feasible, and specific

Functional requirements specify a specific function of the design or simply what a design must do Functional requirements can be business or technical requirements The design must provide a capacity for 10 percent growth over the next 3 years; this is an example of a functional requirement

Nonfunctional requirements specify how the design must perform or operate While

a functional requirement defines something that the design must do, a nonfunctional

requirement defines how or how well it must be done System response time is an example of

a nonfunctional requirement Nonfunctional requirements become constraints on the design.Assumptions are considered valid until they have been proven otherwise These factors are considered to be true, but further discovery is required to validate them As part of the design process, assumptions should be documented and then proven or disproven Sufficient bandwidth being available between different sites to support site-to-site replication is an example of an assumption, if the bandwidth available between the sites or the bandwidth required for replication has not yet been identified

Constraints place limits on the design choices Constraints can be business policies or technical limitations Using a specific vendor for a server's hardware is an example of a technical constraint The project's budget and deadlines are also common constraints Nonfunctional requirements, since they specify how the design must perform or behave, will also become constraints on the design

Risks may prevent the design from being successful Risks should be clearly identified to minimize surprises that may prevent the successful implementation of the design A good design will address and mitigate the risks